CWMA Finale @ The Depot with Ben Kweller and 3,000 bones

The Final Countdown | The 1st Annual City Weekly Awards packs the Depot

Neon Trees, The Furs and Ben Kweller filled the Depot up and set a fantastic precedent for the new format of the most respected showcase of local musical talent in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Furs finessed the crowd with a nice dose of psychedelics.


Bryan, Stephanie and Matty did an impeccable job of reaffirming why they are one of the best in the city with a stellar performance. Check out their upcoming full-length very soon. It's in the works and will sonically stretch and expand your expectations.


Neon Trees saddled up to the bar next with a jaunty spring in their step.
This band, recently signed to Mercury records, also did a great job on their set. It was no wonder that they garnered a huge response enabling them to play the showcase and then this final event. I was very impressed at their performance and had a great time talking to the band before their set. Keep your eyes out for the video of that in a few days.


Ben Kweller was up next. He was very Ben Kweller-y and capped-off the night, and the CWMAs, to an amped crowd of devotees. Everyone present had a really exceptional time and benefited from the spectacular results of a year-long process for the entire organization of City Weekly. The staff there spend untold hours of effort and sweat, tears and straining of their wrist tendons to put on one of the best alt-newspaper music festivals in the country. Let's give credit where it is due and meet some of the folks behind the fatiguing––yet very rewarding––process of making Salt Lake City, Utah an awesome city for music...

City Weekly Music Awards Staff, Contributors and Friends

Andrea Richmond and Dominique LaJeunesse of CW



Brinton and Paul


of The Devil Whale and The Madison Arm

Bill Frost of CW and Spork, Gavin of Gavin's Underground and Brian Staker of CW

Bryan sees if Jamie Gadette's hair is real

and it is!

The Naked Eyes




Anna of Slowtrain and Jamie of CW



Alex and The Furs



Ryan and Parker of Zuriick.com kick it




For more pics head over to the underground: KUTV's Gavin's Underground photo gallery. He's a swell guy and does a very comprehensive job with the scene in general.

See, City Weekly staff can party as hard as we write and present entertainment for you. Keep your eyes peeled, online and in print for the results of the final tally and the announcement of what local band pocketed the $3,000 in prize money, and well-deserved bragging rights, that this huge shindig was meant to allot. Hint: it was Neon Trees. Congrats go out to all the bands who gave of their time to play for the hundreds of people who attended the showcases and thanks to those who realize the real intent of the CWMA format: a great way to spread the word and get people excited about local happenings.

A final thanks to ALL the bands (including Form of Rocket and Band of Annuals, we missed you guys!) in the city, fans, venues––especially The Depot––and sponsors for making the 1st Annual City Weekly Music Awards an unequivocal success. See you next year and thanks for participating.

PS Go Local!

(Jon Paxton)

Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm, The Devil Whale at The Star Bar in Park City

While rather warm and dreary down in the Salt Lake Valley this past Saturday night, Park City was clouded in fog as the last night of CWMA’s showcases got under way at The Star Bar

On the bill for the evening was singer-songwriter Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm with The Devil Whale to follow. It seems fitting that the closing night of the CWMA’s just also happened to be the finale of the two-week tour that these two bands have been enjoying together. At separate times both bands joked that the tour started in Utah County at Velour and incorporated a bunch of down time—which makes absolute sense since that show and the showcase combined was the total tour.

After a bit of a late start due to what can only be deemed as the all-encompassing technical difficulties, Paul Jacobsen & The Madison Arm (which on this evening consisted of a backing trio playing guitars, pianos and random percussive instruments) took the stage. Although not familiar with Paul Jacobsen before he started playing, his sound immediately rang recognizable and honest. Some of the most memorable moments of the show came via the trashcan style drumming on the likes of several old bass drums, a lonely snare and a tambourine sitting upon a worn suitcase—all deftly played with brushes, mallets and bare hands alike. The vocal harmonies were always forefront while paired with a soft acoustical guitar or a plaintive piano (as in the cover of CSN&Y’s “Helpless”). Paul Jacobsen lists his influences as Neil Young, Elliott Smith and Wilco and although one might be able to hear those artists at times, Saturday’s set for me was far more reminiscent of Damien Rice or The Frames’ Glen Hansard turn in Swell Season.

Following on the heels of Jacobsen was The Devil Whale. Although I have had the opportunity to see lead singer Brinton Jones play solo recently, I haven’t had the chance to catch The Devil Whale for a while—in fact it was probably back when they were known as Palomino. It was good to hear Jones’ heart-drenching pop-balladry backed by a band again mainly due to the fact that The Devil Whale aren’t afraid to turn it up and let loose a simply constructed song out into far braver pastures. Many of the tunes began with the typical Jones’s song construct of rhythm guitar and a back beat punctuated with his lyrical pop melodies singing such enquiring lines as, “Are you ready to be an accomplice?” But, as with the sad waltz dripping with melancholy that they played later in their set, each song inevitably ended with high emotive strumming and playful dissonance. Wrapping both the evening and the CWMA showcases, The Devil Whale played a song apparently about anarchy with a chorus that seemed only appropriate, “I wanna watch you float away…”

(Jacob Stringer)

PCTV: The Devil Whale

CWMA Top 30 performer The Devil Whale will perform live on Park City Television tonight. If you happen to have access to that channel, tune in. If not, we'll try to get some footage posted some time this week. Huzzah! In the meantime, here is some golden oldie video of the band playing at Velour last summer.

(Jamie Gadette)